1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network, of the type comprising a plurality of pieces of electronic equipment subscribing to the network and a plurality of network nodes, each subscribing piece of equipment being directly connected to a network node, the network nodes being connected to each other via annular direct connections so as to form a reference ring, according to which ring the network nodes are ordered by successive ranks, a node with rank R relative to a reference network node being connected to said reference network node via R successive annular direct connections, each network node being connected by an annular direct receiving connection to an upstream node and via an annular direct transmission connection to a downstream node.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Such a network is intended to interconnect pieces of electronic equipment to allow them to exchange data.
Relative to a network having a central network node, to which all of the subscribing equipment is connected, such a network is more upgradable, less expensive and less bulky, which makes it particularly suited to avionic networks.
However, the current distributed networks are not fully satisfactory due to their limited availability. In fact, in the event of a breakdown of one of the network nodes, a piece of equipment subscribing to the network can no longer transfer data to the connected subscribing equipment, relative to the transmitting equipment, downstream of the broken node.
Document US 2006/0230310 describes a network of the aforementioned type, adapted to tolerate the breakdown of a network node. The network described in US 2006/0230310 thus has direct connections between network nodes that are not successively connected in the reference ring.
However, this solution is not fully satisfactory. Indeed, for operating safety reasons, it is desirable for the network of an aircraft to tolerate the breakdown of at least two network nodes.